


The Trials and Tribulations of the One and Only Michael Afton

by Ace_of_Toads



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Angst, Daddy Issues, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, It's just my telling of the story line and what I think would have happened, M/M, Michael centric fic, Mike Schmidt is Michael Afton, The jeremike is much later and only a small part of it, because that's fun, henry is also the phone guy because thats fun, i cannot stress enough that this is a mild au, maybe hes born with it maybe its, some things dont quite line up sorry, well medium part
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:29:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 12,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24205192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ace_of_Toads/pseuds/Ace_of_Toads
Summary: The life of Michael Afton and how he tried his best to pick up his fathers broken pieces.  This is a version of the events of Five Nights at Freddy's and how it could have began and concluded.
Relationships: Jeremy Fitzgerald/Michael Afton, Jeremy Fitzgerald/Mike Schmidt
Comments: 35
Kudos: 127





	1. Putting the Past Behind You

“Michael. Are you listening to me?”  
  
Those words seemed to snap Michael back to reality. He startled a bit, feeling his eyes snap to the person talking to him. Oh yeah, his new therapist, Jason Rodriguez. Jason’s face was calm, seemingly devoid of emotion, but there was pity in his eyes and Michael hated that, he was tired of pity. He was here to get better, not to be cooed at.  
  
“I know this is only your third session but I feel as though you aren’t opening up to me just yet” Jason began, “I know your story is hard, and we have a lot to go through but I want to help you and to do that I need your version of events”  
  
Of course, people knew the rumors of what had happened to William Afton, Elizabeth Afton, and Carson Afton. And his hometown whispered about Michael, sure they were kind enough and brought him food sometimes, but they avoided him. What happened to Carson… No, not yet. No need to stay in his own head, he had come to therapy willingly after all.  
  
“Well where should I start?” he began, he licked his lips, they were so dry all of a sudden.  
  
“What about with what made you come here in the first place? You mentioned our first session that you had some pretty severe nightmares.” Jason said calmly, his voice was soft and comforting, probably good qualities in a trauma therapist.  
  
“Well yeah” Michael paused, he had never said what he was about to say, William hadn’t ever been an understanding father, even when he was around. “I keep dreaming about Carson, that was my little brother you know. Look I know it's my fault he’s dead but, I didn’t mean it. I was just joking around and he slipped from my grasp and got crushed… There was so much blood and it just keeps coming back to me. He lived for only five days after that, in a coma, I never got to say sorry. Not that he would have taken it of course, I wasn’t a great brother to him.”  
  
Michael looked around the room, he was bouncing his leg very rapidly as he waited for Jason to answer. His eyes stung a bit, but he tried his best not to think about it.  
  
“Michael, that was obviously a very hard thing to share. Thank you. But it wasn’t your fault, and you can’t carry that guilt with you forever, what happened to Carson was an accident, and terrible, traumatic accident but an accident never the less. I don’t believe that people truly blame you for that.”  
  
Michael gave a dry laugh; he could barely hold back the venom in his words.  
  
“Oh, people blamed me, my father did, the people of my hometown do. I can deal with William, but I have to live with those people. And then when Elizabeth disappeared, William just kept getting angrier and angrier. Then he left too, went to work one day and never came back, and oh the neighbors whispered, they gossiped and murmured, because I was the last one on the will. Some of them say it was a nice little set up that I did, as if I wanted any of this, as if I wanted to lose what was left of my family one after the other. And I was there when Elizabeth disappeared too, isn't that awful? I was suppose to be watching her at Williams work, he was fixing one of those animatronics, and she just slipped away from me and no one ever saw her again, I should have kept my eye on her, I should have been better!”  
  
“Michael”  
  
Michael looked up, he had dug his nails into the skin of his right arm and he was crying. He was just so tired of it all, the whispers, the guilt, and the fact that despite Ms. Jones’s theories he had no true idea what had happened to Elizabeth and William.  
  
“Michael. I’m proud of you for being able to say all of that, and that isolation that you're experiencing is a terrible feeling. But I want you to know that I and the people of our justice system believe you. Your father was an” at this point Jason seemed to pause as if searching for a word “eccentric man. Yes eccentric. The theory the investigators put forth about him wandering away are plausible. Now let’s address what you can do to help yourself push away those isolating feelings.”  
  
Michael nodded, it made sense, almost. He didn’t share his true feelings on the subject, William didn’t just wander away, something had happened. But he didn’t want to seem like a lunatic. The police’s report was fine for now.  
  
The rest of the session droned on, not that Jason wasn’t helpful but Michael was growing tired, and when he left to start down the path to his family home, he felt drained, more so than he expected. The first stars were out and he paused to look at them. He didn’t feel peace, but he felt a little better, this therapy thing seemed like it was going to be a good thing after all, he just hoped that he could soon talk about what he actually thought happened to Carson, Elizabeth, and William.


	2. Holding onto the Past Stubbornly and Never Letting Go

The alarm buzzed over and over in Michael’s ear. It was a Saturday but he liked to wake up fairly early, 8am, because it was just nice and cool out. The small Midwestern town had cold mornings and hot afternoons, but he was really up because none of his neighbors were early risers, so if Michael wanted some peace and quiet then this was all he was going to get.

The house was old but had two stories, they had all had their own bedrooms, which had been pretty cool as kids but now it just made him feel more and more lonely. Maybe he would go out of town today. It was something that Jason had suggested for him to meet people, if he wasn’t going to get a long with anyone here then he was going to have to search for them.

Yeah that idea was sounding better and better, he could get brunch a few towns over and maybe start looking for a new job. He had William’s inheritance and his animatronics company shares, plus the old house so he wasn’t in financial trouble, but by god he wasn’t going to sit around for the rest of his life. 

The drive wasn’t that long, although the unchanging American Midwest landscape sure made it feel like it took forever. Eventually Michael pulled into town, it was larger than what he was use too, they had a main street with actual chain franchises and everything, he chuckled to himself at that. What’s the old saying again? You never know how small your hometown is until you leave it? Something dumb like that. He gave one more good look around the street and then nearly swerved off the road.

There, right across the street was a sign. Circus Baby's Pizza World. He knew that name, he knew it well. It was one of the last animatronics William worked on, the one Elizabeth kept whining about wanting to see before she disappeared. Pulling into a parking spot as fast as he could, Michael practically sprinted towards restraint. It was a Saturday, and it was full of children.

He could feel the hairs on that back of his neck stand up. There she was, Circus Baby, right there with some others, he could see some Foxy variant singing a song. It was so foreign yet so familiar. He had grown up in and out of pizzerias and venues, William and Henry would often sell their creations themselves, and why not bring the kids to appear like family men?

Michael snapped himself from his trance just to realize how creepy he looked. He needed to get inside without looking like a 23-year-old weirdo. But how?

Then as if the universe was trying to feed this high of mania about his past his eyes fell upon a flyer taped to the window. 

“Night Guard wanted, apply within”

“Perfect” Michael whispered to himself, time to kill two birds with one stone and get a job. Was he dressed for an interview? No. Did he have a resume? No. Did he even have experience? No. But that wasn’t the point.

He stepped through the doors and the smell almost bowled him over, all pizzerias smell the same. And they’ve smelled that way for as long as he could remember. Michael made his way towards the back, he was trying his best to not look at Circus Baby, he needed to be mostly sane for this interview and he couldn’t be completely absorbed in memory.

Finding someone who even vaguely resembled like a manager was more difficult than he expected, but eventually Michael stumbled across a bored looking man in a polo shirt leaning against a wall.

“Hello are you a manager here?” Michael asked

“Yeah” the man gave heavy sigh, all but falling forward from the wall, as if this were the greatest inconvenience of all time “What’s broken?”

“Oh no, I- um- am here to apply for the night guard position. My name is Michael Afton.”

“Oh sure. You got a criminal record?” The man didn’t seem any less exhausted 

“No?” Michael replied, the adrenaline from seeing one of William’s old machines was wearing off and he was beginning to regret this journey.

“Cool, sign this non-discloser agreement and you can start 12pm on Monday” The man said, leading him to a desk.

“Just like that?” Michael asked, this was all very sudden

“Just like that” the man said matter-a-factly, “Look night guard isn’t that hard here, you’re just a glorified janitor Mitch.”

“Michael”

“Sure, sure, whatever” the man laughed, “Someone will see you Monday Night, just actually come back.”

As Michael stepped outside a strange feeling came over him. This probably wasn’t the change of scene that Jason had recommended, but he felt as if he had a direction, for the first time in a very long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fnaf is a total Midwestern thing because everyone out here is bored as hell and would totally allow a sketchy pizza place to thrive just for something to do and you may, can, and should quote me on that


	3. The Past is a Bitch

“I remember this scenario. However, it’s a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I’m curious what events will lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this willingly. Maybe curiosity, maybe ignorance.”

Michael bit his fist as hard as he could. That wasn’t Circus Baby’s voice, he remembered that one. He used to scare Carson with it, it was so static-filled and there was no inflection on the words. But this, this was a different voice, Elizabeth’s voice. He hadn’t heard it in years, and despite the mechanical click, it sounded just like his baby sister.

His knuckles were white with gripping the piece of metal that was separating him from Ballora or the Foxy, and from fear, what on earth was speaking with his sister’s voice. Whatever it was, it didn’t recognize him, or pretended not to. The metal scraping occupied his thoughts for a bit, but ultimately Michael found himself coming back to the voice again and again. Of course, he had heard the rumors of four kids who went missing, were murdered, and were now haunting animatronics, who hadn’t? But they were rumors, the haunting part that is. He fully believed that those children were murdered, and that Elizabeth was kidnapped and probably dead by this point, but haunting? That was a little much, and yet, she talked just like her. The same words, the same inflections, the same sounds. She gave him hints, told him how to not die, told him how to reach the breaker room.

The whiteness of his face never left, even when he went home at 3am, the tremors barley stopped, even when he was inside his home and safe, he could barely control his racing thoughts. Maybe his father had modeled a new voice after Elizabeth? Although he doubted that William was attentive enough to any of his kids to ever pull it off as he did. She was reactionary too; he doubted all that dialog was just programmed into her like that. So, she had some kind of AI or consciousness. Which William never worked with. The other animatronics there didn’t behave like Circus baby either, which didn’t help Michael sooth his paranoia, if anything it confirmed it. The TV didn’t help, the soap opera was bad, although what was new about that. And he fell asleep on the couch to fitful dreams.

The next night Michael crawled back through the Circus Baby gallery vent. His hands were shaking as he crawled back into the space under the desk. There was a small crack in the back wall, maybe he could hear Circus Baby again. He did.

Her story was strange, and he didn’t dare talk to her, she sounded like his baby sister. But something was wrong with her words. She was almost malicious in how she described the children. 

“Two, Three, Five, Four”

Her voice grew strange and Michael was now truly suspecting that he was making a terrible mistake seeking her out.  
“Four, Three, Two, One”

“There was screaming but only for a moment. The other children couldn’t hear her screams.”

Michael nearly screamed himself. Was that Elizabeth’s fate? How long did it take her to die? Did she know he looked for her? Circus Baby had been William’s pride and joy, but why? Was it because it was a machine that would kill children?

The rest of his tasks were a blur. But Michael knew this: he didn’t lose Elizabeth all those years ago in that pizzeria, she had been killed. Their own god forsaken father had created a machine that would isolate and kill children, and Elizabeth was the first victim. He was so caught up in these thoughts that he must have taken a wrong turn. And it all went black.


	4. Mistakes Old and New

“The cameras were searching for you, but they couldn’t find you. I have you hidden too well.”

That was the first thing Michael heard when he came too. His head was pounding and everything looked fuzzy. 

“Eliza-.” He began before remembering what he had learned, while she sounded just like his sister, he didn’t trust Circus Baby just yet. He was in some sort of suit, and had limited motion of his hands

“You’re in the Scooping Room. Do you know why they call it the Scooping Room? It’s because, dummy, this is the room where they use the scooper. I thought that would be obvious.” Circus Baby cooed, she sounded so mocking, as if he was an inattentive child that missed something he should have known. He wondered if he had ever spoken to Elizabeth like that when they were kids.

A loud sound startled him, it was as if there was someone in the room with him, not that he could see them. And then he saw a silhouette. The frame of Ballora, the dancer, came into view. Her body was slumped as if she was deactivated, but Michael could see the faintest gleam in her eyes, he wondered if that meant anything.

“Do you ever play make believe? Pretend to be one way when you are really the other? It’s very important. Ballora never learns, but I do.” Circus Baby almost laughed, she sounded smug, much in the same way that Elizabeth use to sound when she would get out of trouble. 

The machine made a scraping sound, and then, faster than Michael could process it, half of Ballora’s body was torn from her. The lights in her eyes were flickering, but her body was completely still. Michael bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from screaming, he tasted blood. But he could only stare in horror at the animatronic shell he was looking at. 

“I’ll open the faceplates for you. That way they can find you on the cameras. Now all you have to do is wait. I’d recommend that you keep the spring-locks wound up. You don’t want them to get too loose, trust me.” Circus Baby whispered, and with those parting words a new hell began.

The suit had very little mobility and it was unstable, the spring-locks kept unscrewing. Any movement he made had the suit jostling and knocking everything loose. Then came the marionettes. He had seen them around Ballora before but now they moved freely on their own. They crawled up the sides of the suit and some even crawled in with him. They moved like spiders, crawling up his legs and around his face. They even chattered to themselves as they shifted him around in the suit, pushing the spring-locks into dangerous positions.

William use to swear up and down that spring-lock suits were perfectly safe, even going as far as to try to put Michael into one. It was Henry that pulled Michael out of the jaws of death that time, and it was the only time Henry ever raised his voice at William, holding Michael safely in his arms still. It was a safe memory, one he often came back to when he needed to relax, one of the few times he had ever been hugged. 

He couldn’t be lost in memory now, the night wasn’t over and the marionettes were getting more aggressive, it was like he was standing in a sea of them. Their arms and legs twisted and scratched at his chest and the suit. And then, just like that, all the lights turned on. The marionettes either scattered or went limp. The thumping of boots could be heard approaching the suit. 

“There you are you brat” came a gruff voice, as a man in overalls came toward him, he pulled open the suit and Michael all but fell out. “You’ll be written up for this, you’re lucky we need a guard so badly.”

“Sorry” was all Michael could manage to get out, he was shaking so badly from the adrenaline of keeping himself alive for almost 6 hours.

“Go home” the man grunted, “Come back tonight and don’t do that again, although I can’t imagine why you would want to stay in a place like this.”

Deciding to save his dignity, Michael went home. There were some neighbors outside, they looked at him strangely and for the first time in a long time. He didn’t care at all.

Deciding to go back for his fifth night on the job was one of the toughest decisions that Michael had ever made. But he needed to know what was going on. He also hadn’t gone back to therapy; he wouldn’t even know where to begin with what had happened. And there was no use pretending that everything was normal either, so he just lay at home until 12am, ignoring Jason’s calls. 

The pizzeria was dark, as usual, that was, until he turned on the lights. There hanging on stage were two swinging bodies, obviously the engineers that had “gone missing”. He could feel it, something was going to happen tonight. It had to; the animatronics wouldn’t leave corpses out in the open. It wouldn’t be very good “pretending” as Baby had called it. 

His task for the night was to dismantle Circus Baby and send her to the scooping room. Maybe she had pretended wrong this time.

“I don’t want it to happen again. There is something bad inside of me. I’m broken. I can’t be fixed.” Baby sounded terrified; her voice trembled just like Elizabeth’s. It broke Michael’s heart, he would do this. He would do his baby sister’s last request, there was no longer doubt in his mind that Elizabeth’s soul was still trapped in this mortal coil. He rushed through her instructions and when he pushed open the secret door. He was greeted with an odd image.

There in front of him was a strange metal hinge, the lights flickered. And behind the glass was a monstrosity. Coils of wiring fell from its face, and it shuffled around. He was in the scooping room, right in front of the scooper. 

Circus Baby’s voice echoed around the room, she was talking fast, trying to justify herself and her friends. They needed a disguise. They weren’t coming back. They wanted to be free.

“The Scooper only hurts for a moment.” Baby’s voice whispered. There was a searing pain, and then. Nothing.


	5. Fighting Back

Circus Baby was wrong. The scooper did not only hurt for a moment, it was constant agony. This was probably because Michael did not die. Despite the endoskeleton that had stuffed itself through the cavity in his chest, Michael continued to hold on. 

Existence was painful and hazy. Michael drifted in and out of consciousness throughout the week. Ennard was very content to move their body about just to see the mundanities of the outside world. They lived in Michael’s house and walked about in the afternoon sun, in full view of the neighbors. However, as the week progressed more and more people avoided them, some even hid when Ennard went strolling about.

Michael was trying his hardest to figure out the change in behavior, sure his neighbors didn’t like him, but they never acted like this. They wouldn’t meet his eyes, and then they hid themselves away. Why? This simple question was hard to even begin to consider with all the pain that he was in, and then one afternoon it came to him.

It was a sunny Thursday and Michael was conscious enough to see his own skin. Or what was left of it. It was rotting, tinted green and other unsavory colors. Ennard clearly had no idea anything was wrong, but anyone who looked at Michael could see, maybe they couldn’t comprehend that they were looking at the undead. But they were. 

Michael knew he was dying, he was somehow still conscious, but his body was decaying, fast. He needed to get Ennard out of him as fast as possible, and he was running out of time to think up that plan. Ennard didn’t seem to know that he was alive, so he could use that surprise as an advantage. He also seemed to have some control over more basic functions in his body, such as the muscles in his chest and around his ribs. Ennard was also mostly concentrated around the ribcage, which meant forcing them out would not be super damaging to what was left of his body. And then came the question of keeping Ennard out, because if he exerted all his strength pushing them out of his chest then what would prevent the creature from just crawling back in?

All these questions and thoughts swirled through Michael’s mind when he felt one of his knees give out. Ennard stopped and was clearly trying to get the leg back under control. And Michael saw his chance. Contracting every muscle he had control over, Michael clawed at his chest. His fingers latched on to Ennard’s face plate and with the last of his energy he pulled and pulled. Ennard responded by gripping his ribs tighter and tighter, sending bolts of pain throughout Michael’s body. But that was Ennard’s mistake. The pain helped Michael pull his mind together and use whatever was left in his arms to rip the beast from him. 

Ennard skidded across the sidewalk pavement and began to scramble away, down the drain, probably to keep out of site. Michael then collapsed. He was tired and decaying.  
He wasn’t sure how long he lay there but it was dusk when Michael came too, and for the first time in a week, with just his own body. He got up on shaky legs and began to limp home.

The house was in shambles, although he wasn’t surprised about that. All Ennard had going for them on how humans lived was whatever Elizabeth cared to share, and she had been dead for a long time. Michael decided that step one was to try to tape his body back together. So, with some hydrochloric acid and a whole lot of bandages he got to work.

It was a slow process, it hurt a lot and Michael’s mind was still fuzzy, but eventually he got mostly everything covered up. The main problem area was his chest and stomach. There was a gaping hole there after all. His arms were also pretty banged up, and were actually rotting a bit. The rest of him wasn’t to bad amazingly, and even his face mostly survived.

He took all night to begin to feel like himself again. The whole time asking: Why am I alive? Surely being scooped and worn like a suit was too much for the human body to handle? The best he could come up with was that if Elizabeth’s spirit was still around, then maybe he was holding on for some reason too. He also came to the conclusion that he couldn’t stay in his house, Ennard may come back, and if that happened then he had little to no chance of fighting him off again. His neighbors would presume him missing and shake their heads, adding him to the gossip of the Afton family.

So at the first light of morning, Michael Afton set out, determined to never return to that home, and determined to use the rest of his gifted life to find some real answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That concludes the sister location arc!  
> Now I know in the cut scene Ennard comes out through Michael's throat but honestly that just seems like too much to repair, so I went with the same way Ennard got it, he goes out.


	6. Allies in the Darkest Hour

Michael woke up to the sun beating down on him. He was homeless, looked diseased, and was very hungry. Another wonderful day. 

He had traveled several towns over, wandering aimlessly. While he had set out to uncover all of the family mysteries, he had not been very successful with no money, no connections, and no leads. He had to keep moving, the fear that Ennard was following him kept him awake most nights. Currently he was laying at the edge of a drainage tunnel thinking hard. Thankfully he was back to having complete control over his mind and body after a month and a half, so that was something, he was getting back to normal.

He was in a new town, with new people and new shops. But it all seemed vaguely familiar to him. He was hoping that was because William had once had business here, although he couldn’t be sure. Suddenly a loud commotion could be heard to his right. He decided to go investigate.

Down the street there was what seemed to a standoff, a large crowd had gathered around a store front and were yelling at one man. The one guy was holding his own in the yelling department however, making at least 50% of the noise and carrying a knife. Interesting.

“No one enters this hell hole” the lone man cried. The fluffy brown hair that stuck up all over the place made him look early 20s at the latest. Although Michael supposed he himself was only 23, but he liked to think that being half-dead ages a person.

“Listen kid, you’ve already been fired. Get out of the way, I need to open my god damn pizzeria” shouted a man from the front of the crowd, he was in a suit and looked pissed off.

“If I was a selfish man I would leave and let you all DIE.” The brown-haired man wailed, “The place is cursed! Those animatronics in there are alive and murderous!”

Animatronics? Michael thought to himself and then he looked up. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza blinked down at him from a dirty neon sign. He had to talk to that former employee.

“I’m calling the police.” The owner at the front of the crowd said, “You’re fired, get off the property.”

Faster than Michael had moved in a long time, he pushed his way to the front of the crowd and grabbed the brown-haired man by the shoulder.

“I believe you but I can’t talk to you here. Come with me.” He whispered quickly, “Just listen, shut up, and come with me.”

“Yeah ok” The other whimpered, obviously realizing that a pocket knife wasn’t going to get him out of the mess he was getting into.

The two pushed their way through the crowed and didn’t stop until they were back by the drain tunnel that Michael had been sleeping.

“Ok” the guy said, “Thank you for getting me out of that, and for believing me. My name is Jeremy Fitzgerald, who are you exactly?”

“Michael Afton” He probably should have made up a name or something, but Jeremy seemed so earnest he didn’t really have time.

“Nice to meet ya Michael, can I call you Mike? It’s a good nickname.” Jeremy grinned, “Thanks for getting me away from all of that, I’m glad you believe me too! I thought I was going crazy for the first two nights, but then it all became unignorable.”

“You were a nightshift guard too?” Michael asked, it seemed to good to be true. Jeremy was someone who had seen the horrors of William’s machines, and Freddy Fazbear’s was William’s most popular costumer, and was alive and present in society. Two important things that Michael was not.

“Yes! I only worked there for a week, I just quit, look I’m not surviving death every night just for $100”  
“Wow that’s really low, although I wasn’t payed for my nightshift week.”

“Really?” Jeremy seemed genuinely floored, what was with this dude? He was so genuine in his reactions, although he hadn’t commented on Michael’s appearance yet, so that was nice. “You could sue you know. Not even on the grounds of death by animatronic, just for wage-theft. Where were you working?”

“Circus Baby’s Pizza World. It’s a different kind of place but same animatronics company. And it’s hard to sue while homeless with no money.”

“Well I guess that’s true.” Jeremy trailed off, “Although I’m concerned that this is a wider problem, I thought it was just this place.”

“Yeah it’s an issue with the animatronics company I’m pretty sure. And this will sound insane, but I think it’s connected to a string of murders, those robots are haunted.”

“Well that’s a lot, but it’s not impossible.” Jeremy mused, “Not what I expected, but it kind of makes sense… I guess.”

“Yeah listen, there’s been at least 6 murders at the establishment chain.” Michael began to just talk, and talk and talk. He told Jeremy pretty much everything. Even that he was the son of the man who did it, he just didn’t mention the scooping part. Something made him hesitate. After a few seconds of silence Jeremy spoke up.

“Yeah ok. Hey do you want to come back to my house with me? I know that’s kinda weird but I feel like we can get to the bottom of this better if we’re not crouched by a dirty drainage system.”

“We?” Michael was genuinely confused at that, why was Jeremy sinking himself into this?

“Yeah, look Mike, either you spin a mean yarn or you’re on the cusp of an incredible cover up. Either way, I can’t deny what I saw in there. I’m with you ‘till the end.”

Michael grinned, what a character. But strangely, he had hope that he was getting somewhere for the first time in a while. Pulling himself up from the ground, the two started the walk across town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thing about Jeremy as a character is that we really know nothing about him, so he's a blank slate. That being said: I've always liked the fandom consensus that he's a high-strung, ray of sunshine. So that's what I'm going with mostly.


	7. Healing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw you promise to update regularly and then you don't. Sorry folks, life be like that sometimes.

Jeremy’s apartment is small, one bedroom, one bathroom. A kitchen and a small living room. Still, it’s got AC and isn’t full of bugs, so Michael couldn’t be happier.

“Yep this is home!” Jeremy grinned, “you can sleep on the couch, sorry Mike, there’s only one bed and I’m not giving that sucker up.”

“Huh? Oh yeah that’s fine, look I’d be happy with anything you gave me.” Being able to stand still for the first time in a while made Michael very aware of a throbbing pain in his chest. Oh yeah, he hadn’t changed the bandages in a while, and he didn’t even want to know what his uncleaned wounds looked like now.

“Hey Jeremy” he began, “you got any hydrogen peroxide or something?"

“Yeah, are you hurt? Let me see.” Jeremy practically ran over to a cabinet and began pulling out various medical supplies. “You were hunched over kinda weird walking here, so I’m guessing something’s wrong on your chest. Come on. Take off your shirt.”

“Uh well, you see-”

“Mike it’s ok man, I'm not going to make fun of you or anything!” Jeremy cut him off, “Just let me help.”

He said it so earnestly, god damn, everything about this idiot was so sweet and genuine. Michael felt bad that he was about to scare the living daylights out of him. And so, he pulled off his shirt and with it came the old bandages. 

*BANG*

Jeremy had dropped the roll of bandages and was staring, white-faced, at the hole in Michael’s stomach.

“Hey don’t freak out” Michael said in what he hoped was a calming voice, “It looks bad so, I’ll just deal with it ok?”

“No no, come over here. Lay down so I can get a good look at this.” Jeremy’s voice was trembling, but firm, “Shit Mike, that looks painful. I’m not sure how you’re alive, but let’s not focus on that right now. Sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Michael was genuinely confused as Jeremy pulled him over to the kitchen table and pushed him down on it. He wasn’t disgusted? He wasn’t kicking Michael out? This was all very confusing.

“Tell me if it hurts too much ok?” Jeremy almost whispered, as he began peeling off the last of the bandages. 

“You’re taking this well.”

“Well I found out that ghosts are real this afternoon, which is going to have irreparable damage on my psyche, so this might as well happen ya know?” Jeremy grinned, wrapping clean bandages around the wounds. “I’m just glad this all looks kinda old, so I doubt you’re in any danger from this. My newest concern is how skinny you are.”

“Look at you being a medic over here” Michael laughed, “I was homeless for a few months ok?”

“Yeah I was the oldest of five siblings, I know how to deal with cuts.” Jeremy was back to his usual grinning self as he finished up on Michael’s chest and moved to his arms. “Is there anything else, or just the torso?”

“My legs are uh, rotting a bit too. They tore me up there as well, I don’t have any bandages on them though.”

“They?”

“Yeah so,” Michael took a deep breath, “I didn’t escape Circus Baby’s Pizza World, I technically died in there. The Ennard thing I told you about? Yeah, they tried to scoop out my insides and wear me like a skin suit, but I guess they did it wrong or something, because I lived and fought back. And then I ran, because I was in no shape to fight them off again.”

“Hmm,” For the first time, Jeremy is mostly silent as he finishes up cleaning Michael’s legs. “Well if it means anything to you, I’m glad you made it.”

“It does.” And for the first time in a long while, Michael smiled.


	8. Thus Far

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my defense I got a job that's been taking up a lot of my time... Sorry for the lateness

“You feeling alright?” 

It had become a common question for Jeremy to ask Mike when they woke up. The routine had only been going for a few weeks, but it was comfortable. Jeremy had bought Mike a bed, which was nice, and had crammed it into the bedroom, which meant that you had to crawl across the dresser to get to the other side of the room, but that just made it more fun. In Jeremy’s words.

“Yeah I'm good” Michael replied, taking the cup of coffee from Jeremy and sitting down next to him on the couch. Jeremy had a job at a grocery store, and Michael took care of the cat, Sunflower, an angry yellow stray that had appeared in the apartment complex one day. Jeremy, of course, fell in love with him and took him in. So now he sat in Mike’s favorite chair glaring at the world.

Mike put his arm in its usual spot, right behind Jeremy’s head so he could lean back on it while he read the paper. This was only because Jeremy’s torso was too long for the ratty couch and his neck got tired. There is no other reason. Stop reading into things.

“Hey Mike” Jeremy’s voice cut through Mike’s thoughts, he was looking at the newspaper in concern, his voice was a bit lower, meaning that he was thinking pretty hard, “look at this for me will ya?”

This week on True Crime: The Surprising case of the Missing Michael Afton!

It was some weekly column that Mike had never payed much attention too. But there it was, his name on the little headline.

“Well shit. Let’s see what they got right.” Mike said in amusement. Using the hand by Jeremy’s shoulder he tilted the paper so he could see it better, “The Afton family has been featured several times in this column, with the disappearances of William Afton, the head of the family, and Elizabeth Afton, the only daughter, the tragic death of Carson Afton in 1983. And now, the last surviving son, Michael Afton’s corpse has reportedly gone missing...” Mike cut off there with a laugh.

“Well that’s what happened. I died on my driveway then got up and walked away.”

Jeremy didn’t seem so amused. He had pursed his lips into a frown, and was glaring at the paper in front of him.

“Well I don’t think they should be talking about something that happened so recently.”

“It’s hardly a problem Jeremy, I’m sure the exclusive interview they allude too is just one of the guys that thought I set up my family’s death. I’ve stopped caring about what they thought a long time ago.”

“People really thought that about you?” Jeremy seemed insulted, as if people had said those things about him, that threw Mike for a bit of a loop. Why did he care what his old neighbors had said about him? Mike took a long sip of coffee and began.

“Well yeah… Look you know Carson? Well he was my little brother, I mean he still is, he wasn’t disowned after all, he actually died. Yeah, and it was my fault, we were in a stupid Freddy Fazbear pizzeria of all places and, well it was his birthday right. He was turning nine, he was acting really weird actually, he use to love that place, wanted to go all the time, but that day he wouldn’t stop crying…” Michael trailed off. How had he never thought of this? Carson was being weird that day. “But yeah, I was like what? Sixteen? A complete asshole and I held him up to the animatronic and… he just slipped.” 

Mike stopped; he didn’t dare go any further. Now what? He’d be kicked out? He wouldn’t blame Jeremy for that. He was a murder; Carson was dead because of him.

“Can you promise me it was an accident?” Jeremy’s voice was soft

“What?”

“Just promise me you didn’t mean to kill him.” Jeremy said again, his voice was trembling slightly, like he was about to cry. It broke Mike’s heart and made him hate himself more.

“Yeah of course, it was an accident. I mean, it killed me Jeremy, I was a jerk, but I loved my siblings, they were all I had.”

“Ok. Then I believe you.” 

“You do?” Mike was incredulous, how on earth was he forgiven, just like that?

“Yeah, but Mike man, I need to know these things.” Jeremy gave a short laugh, “Like, we’re solving a mystery of the weird stuff your dad did, like his son died from a robot he built right? That’s kinda important!”

“Yeah yeah I know man.” Mike gave a low grin, “That was traumatic ok?”

“I know” Mike felt Jeremy lean his head against his shoulder, it was comforting, “Do you want to go over what we know now or?”

“No yeah, I can do it now.”

“Ok. Stop me if any of this is wrong.” Jeremy began, “William made animatronics with this guy named Henry.”

“Yeah they were family friends, William had us three kids and Henry had one daughter named Charlie.” Mike cut in.

“And you said she died of mysterious circumstances outside a pizzeria.”

“She did.” Charlie had been found outside on a rainy night, she had been missing for only a few hours, making the death by exposer ruling suspicious. “She was found near one of the puppet dolls that Henry had been making. Maybe she dragged it outside?”

“Yeah maybe, and that lines up with the puppet at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The one with the music box.”

“Yeah…” Michael trailed off “Did you ever interact with it?”

“No not really” Jeremy said, if you kept the music box wound it didn’t really do anything. I saw it though, it smelled really bad, and had an angry face. I thought that was a weird design choice for a kid’s toy.”

“Well I think we can chalk that thing up to being whatever’s left of Charlie.”

“Well that’s just awful.” Jeremy shivered

“It’s all awful, let’s keep going. At that point, four kids went missing, and that’s when four animatronics started acting weird. I remember Henry complaining about it. It was the Bonnie, Foxy, Chica, and Freddy ones, all at one restaurant. He kept wanting to do servicing himself. But William always insisted that he do it.”

“Right because that’s not suspicious at all.” Jeremy muttered, “Four robots that can fit small children inside of them start acting up and William is the only guy allowed to look at them?”

Mike let out a dark chuckle. “You have to understand what mental state Henry was in, his wife left him after Charlie’s death. He only had William, and I think William took advantage of that.”

“Yeah that makes sense. Then what? Where does Carson fit into this?”

“A week later was his birthday…” Michael trailed off again, but before he could say anything Jeremy interrupted him.

“You said he was acting weird right? And he was there all the time before the four kids went missing? Mike do you think it’s possible that-”

“He saw the murders.” Mike’s world seemed to stop. Too many things made sense, the way that Carson’s new fear of animatronics seemed to develop overnight. How he also avoided the whole family. “You know what Jeremy? He was terrified of the animatronics, but he once called them ‘my friends’ to me. ‘Don’t make me see my friends today.’ He said that when we went to the pizzeria that week. He was friends with a lot of the regular kids. Did he at least see them stuffed into the suits?”

“That is very possible.”

Mike looked down. He didn’t realize that he had stood up. He was gripping the back of sunflower’s chair so hard his knuckles were turning white. “Let’s move on” He said in a shaky voice.

“Ok yeah.” Jeremy was looking at him with concern, but Mike couldn’t focus on that now.

“Ok so then William gets a new contract with this similar chain. The Circus Baby guys. He begins working on his new line of animatronics. He’s very insistent that we can never  
go near them. But Elizabeth really wanted too. She liked one of them. Circus Baby herself.”

“And you think it killed her?”

“Yeah… Look the way that it was described to me in Circus Baby’s Pizza World it sounded like she had a purpose to count and isolate children.”

“That fits the bill for me.” Jeremy muttered, “What was William like after that?”

“Besides tell me that it was my fault and that I was suppose to be watching her?” Mike laughed, “He became almost deranged, he would just sit in his lab, closed off from the world. He wouldn’t talk to me except to yell at me and he even fought with Henry once. Those two never fought before this. But Henry left the house saying they would never speak again.”

“Could Henry have learned about the murders?”

“Maybe? But it seems unlikely to me, Henry would have reported him too authorities. But after that… William just disappeared, he got up and wandered off. And no one has heard from him since.” 

For a moment the two sat in silence. Each taking in the discussion and racking their brains for some form of an idea of what happened to William.  
“Well let’s come back to that then.” Jeremy said, turning back to his notes, “I’ve been thinking about the pink foxy you mentioned, it sounds really similar to the Mangle at my work.”

“Jesus now that’s a name.” Mike laughed, “But Funtime Foxy became part of Ennard.”

“Most of him did.” Jeremy corrected, “The Mangle was FAR from a complete animatronic, plus Ennard fit in you, not everything from every animatronic was in that thing, that’d be too much!”

“I guess?” Mike said, “Sure wiring-wise that makes sense but why on earth would they not put the consciousness of Funtime Freddy, Foxy, and Ballora in Ennard?”

“I’ll admit, Mangle never seemed ‘all-there’, they didn’t seem super malicious, just very confused. Plus, if Elizabeth was the ringleader then why wouldn’t she leave things out to keep herself in control.”

Mike gave a nod. That did make sense. Elizabeth was defiantly pushy, in life and in death. He remembered how Circus Baby had mocked Ballora for not “pretending well”.

“This is a lot.” Jeremy muttered standing up to walk over to where Mike stood. He leaned his head down, until his chin was resting on Mike’s shoulder, and then wrapped his arms  
around him. Mike leaned back into Jeremy’s embrace, trying to keep his breathing steady. Although he was discovering in this moment that he liked the hug.

“You ok Mike?” Jeremy asked

“Yeah” Mike paused, taking in the quiet of the morning for the first time, “You know this is the second time I’ve ever been hugged?”

“Christ man!” Jeremy exclaimed, his body jerking up like it always did when he was surprised, “What on earth is wrong with your family.”

Mike let out a long laugh, spinning around to catch Jeremy in another hug. What a weird life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it occurred to me no one knows what "version" of the lore that I'm using... So that's what this chapter is. Also setting up for ship stuff.


	9. A Rose by Any Other Name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this is late as fuck

“Eggs, eggs, eggs” Mike muttered to himself, this stupid store was always rearranging how they organized everything, it was pissing him off. He hated being outside, the grey-green tint of his skin sometimes attracted stares, he preferred to be at home, with Jeremy and Sunflower. Even though that cat still hated him.

Wandering about for a while longer, Mike was debating the idea of giving up and just going home, he could make Jeremy go get them after work. It’d be a jerk move, but Mike had always considered himself kind of a jerk.

“Need any help sir?” the harmless question from the store worker almost made Mike jump out of his skin, not that that would have been very hard, he was a bit… loose… after all.

“Eggs” he managed to choke out

“On isle 3 sir, right by the ham.”

“Yeah thanks” Mike muttered, scurrying away, cursing under his breath what kind of place puts ham by the eggs anyway?

The eggs were right where the employee said they were, which only soured Mike’s mood more, he was sure that he had been down this isle a million times. On top of the eggs sat a crumpled flyer:

“Time for Career Advancement at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria! Have you ever wanted to work set hours as a nightshift guard!”

Staring back up at him was that damned bear, grinning and wearing a nightguard hat. Reading more of the details on the flyer told him that the restaurant was a town over, and had apparently been open for a while, but was in desperate need for a security guard. Suspicious.

Mike grabbed the flyer and rushed out of the store and all but ran home. Only once he got back to the apartment did he realize that he had left all the groceries in the cart. But too much was racing through his mind for him to care.

He didn’t even hear Jeremy come in when he got home, Mike was on his fifth cup of coffee, weighing his options. He had to get that job, but Jeremy wouldn’t want him to do it; or worse, insist on doing it himself. Which was far too dangerous. 

There it was, that damn feeling in what was left of his stomach. He could easily admit to himself that Jeremy was the best person he had ever had in his life, his best friend, and a wonderful housemate. But beyond that? He was very confused, he liked touching him, from holding his hand, to having his arm around his shoulder on the couch. Mike also knew he was weirdly protective of his friend, from the time that a customer had been rude to him, to the idea of him having to go into that pizzeria. It was all very confusing and honestly Mike didn’t know what to do.

“Hey Mike where are the eggs?” Jeremy’s voice suddenly appearing behind him made him jump. “Could you not find them?”

“Oh uhh, wait when did you get home?” Mike sputtered

“A few minuets ago? I said hi but you seemed to be in a mood.”

“Oh no well, you see it’s actually” Forgoing actual words Mike thrust the flyer into Jeremy’s hands.

Jeremy read it for a few seconds.

“Absolutely not Mike. That’s a suicide mission”

“Jeremy, I haven’t even told you the plan yet.”

“Mike we’ve been living together for like 11 months at this point, I know what your stupid plan is. You’re going to apply as a nightguard, poke around for a bit, and then die a horrible death!”

“Well you don’t know that last part is going to happen!”

“Mike it was hell in there, those fucking robots are malicious killers! I know that they’re scared kids, but they’re scared kids with heavy machinery which can and will rip you apart! I barely survived in there.”

“Jeremy” Mike began

“And you didn’t even get through your first shift! You died Michael! Your corpse was left on the street rotting!” Jeremy was near hysterics, and it was throwing Mike off guard, why was he so upset? Sure, they were good friends but this seemed even a bit much, especially since he knew it was Mike’s goal and purpose to get to the bottom of whatever hell William had released onto the world.

“Jeremy” Mike tried again, walking closer to his friend and wrapping him in an embrace, Jeremy returned it and the two held each other for a moment.

“I know I can’t stop you.” Jeremy whispered, his breath catching as if he were about to cry. “But Mike I don’t want you to get hurt. You’re my best friend.”

There it was that feeling again, it caught in his chest and closed his throat. Why? 

“This is what I have to do, all those kids are dead, and somehow I'm still standing here. I have to do what they could not. I have to fix whatever the hell William unleased upon this earth.”

“Damnit Mike, I know… And that’s why I love you.”

The feeling that had been rising in his chest suddenly bloomed, he almost gagged with the overwhelming emotion. But now he had a name for it.

Love.


	10. Happiness is what you make of it, or something like that...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> College is hard....

“What did you say?”

“Mike I'm so sorry.” Jeremy almost shot backwards, clutching his face, it was bright red. Now he was really crying. “Please don’t hate me, I promise it doesn’t have to mean anything.”

Mike knew that he should probably stop Jeremy before his anxiety spiraled completely out of control but he was still choking on his own emotions. Jeremy loved him, and he loved Jeremy. 

He was reeling, something that he didn’t even know he wanted had just been handed to him. He didn’t know what to say, what to even think. But he wasn’t mad at all. The happiness within him was bubbling over.

“Jeremy” he began

“Mike please pretend I never said anything” Jeremy was almost in tears, and Mike got it honestly, it was a big thing to admit. He had tried all his life to ignore affections for men, he didn’t need to give William more ammo against him after all. 

“Hey hey hey, everything is ok Jeremy. I don’t hate you!” Say it Mike! The voice in his head was screaming at him. “I love you too, I really do. I care about you so much and I like it when you put your head on my shoulder even though you’re taller than me. I like it when you hold my hand when you change my bandages. How you still love Sunflower even though he does nothing but bite and hiss. I know I should have said something, but I didn’t want to lose you.”

They both stopped, staring at each other in shock.

“really?” Jeremy almost whispered, he looked so hopeful, his hands still clutching each other, but not tight.

“Y-yeah, I mean it.” Mike couldn’t help but look at the floor, vulnerability was a luxury he could never have. He had seen it, with Henry and his family, before Charlie’s death. He remembered Henry picking Charlie up and swinging her around and around as she screamed in happiness, his wife laughing and smiling at the sight. He had tried to hold Williams hand after that, and gotten smacked for it. So, he took it out on Carson and Elizabeth, if he couldn’t have warmth and safety, then neither could they.

But he wanted what he had seen, on TV and in the nuclear families that he had grown up around. And on some level, he knew he couldn’t have that, maybe someday, but he had never allowed himself the fantasy. But Jeremy was different, he could almost see it, almost see that elusive domestic life. Could he allow himself that? Maybe, maybe he could.

“Look, I’ll admit I’m not the… best with emotions and stuff, but I think”, he took a deep breath “I want to be happy with you.” Not quite everything that was going on in his head, but he hoped that Jeremy understood.

“Yeah, I think we can do that.” Jeremy grinned hesitantly, he stepped forward a bit, reaching out for Mike’s hand. And Mike took it gladly.

The two sat down on the beat-up couch, just leaning against each other. Taking it all in, the good, the bad, the shock.

“Well, I hope we don’t get kicked out of this apartment.” Mike muttered darkly

“Mike! Can you be optimistic for once?” Jeremy groaned, but he was laughing, he often did at Mike’s dark remarks, “We’ve lived together for 11 months, I don’t think our landlord cares as long as we pay rent.”

“Just saying” Mike muttered, he wasn’t use to being happy for such an extended period of time. “but in all seriousness, I do love you, but I am taking that Freddy Fazbear’s pizza job. We have to keep moving somewhat forward, and just reading library manuals isn’t really getting us anywhere.” 

“I suppose you’re right.” Jeremy replied, “it makes me nervous though…”

“I know, I’ll be careful.” Mike promised, leaning himself against Jeremy. What a nice day it turned out to be.


	11. The Belly of the Beast

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria looked dingy and gross, so completely normal. He had gotten the job without much resistance, but that wasn’t what he was worried about. There was a tiny office he was shown too, with two doors on either side, a telephone, and a monitoring board of sorts. It looked like a “normal” nightguard set up, better than Jeremy’s at least, he didn’t even have doors! 

Mike took his seat and picked up the monitor. Then the telephone rang, odd.

“"Hello? Hello, hello? Uhh, I wanted to record a message for you...”

Mike nearly dropped the phone in shock. That’s a voice that he knew! He grabbed the phone pushing it closer to his ear, Henry! Was he still with the company? Mike realized that in all his searching into whatever William did, he hadn’t really looked into Henry. That made him feel guilty somehow. Henry was saying something about the cameras, limit battery, yadda yadda.

“Um, now that wouldn’t be so bad if the suits themselves weren’t filled with crossbeams, wires, and animatronic devices, especially around the facial area. So you can imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort... and death. Uh, the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth when they pop out the front of the mask, heh. ...Y-Yeah, they don’t tell you these things when you sign up... But hey! First day should be a breeze; I’ll chat with you tomorrow. Uhh, check those cameras, and remember to close the doors only if absolutely necessary. Gotta conserve power!” *Click* What the fuck Henry….

He sounded like a mess, and honestly that lined up with the last time Mike saw him, the fight between William and Henry. It had been just before William’s disappearance. Henry had basically kicked down their door, drunk out of his mind at 1pm, begging for William to help him. William came and shoved him on to the couch in their living room while screaming at Michael to “get out boy if you know what’s good for you!”

Mike left the room, but crouched behind the door, he had never seen Henry like this. He was always calm and collected, a voice of reason.

“Give me back my daughter!” Henry had screamed, trying to get up to confront William, but only really succeeded in rolling onto the floor, “Give her back William…”

“You come into my house in this state? In front of all my neighbors, you’re a fucking mess Henry. Get up and go home, I won’t let you embarrass yourself like this in front of me.”

“You know something” Henry sobbed on the ground, “William please, help me.”

“Get up you drunk.” William muttered. Henry groaned and then cried out in pain as William kicked him over and over. “I told you not to come here like this. Did you drive? You should have crashed that damned car and joined your precious daughter in hell.”

That seemed to light some sort of fire in Henry, he pulled himself off the ground and grabbed William by the shoulders. Henry was bigger than William, both in height and just general strength. And soon the two were on the ground again. 

Mike winced at the memory; Henry ended up punching William a few times before William threw him out of the house. A few days later William disappeared, and Mike was alone.

Snapping out of it, Mike got a good look at the three animatronics on stage. Well don’t these guys look familiar? Mike grinned, the gamble of taking the job here paid off. Those were three of the four that had started acting weird all those years ago, the ones that Jeremy theorized had the murdered children in them.

Then Bonnie moved.

“Fuck” Mike whispered, “That’s not what I want to see”

Well, that wasn’t normal at all. They didn’t move like Circus Baby had moved, instead they seemed aimless and confused. Sometimes they looked at cameras and shuffled towards the door, but they didn’t stay at the door. Weird.

The night passed without much issue. The animatronics didn’t do all that much. Freddy never even moved from his place on the stage.

At 6am, Mike got back on the bus slowly traveled home. Soon he saw the familiar shitty apartment. Opening the door, he was greeted with the smell of coffee and eggs.   
“Hey darling.” He murmured softly.

“Mike!” the relief in Jeremy’s voice was palpable, he turned and wrapped his arms around the smaller man, squeezing tightly and planting a kiss on his cheek. “I’m glad your safe and home.”

“Yeah, don’t you have to go to work?” Mike glanced at the clock; it was 6:45.

“I know I do, but I couldn’t go without knowing that you were alright. I’ll be home in the evening and we can talk about what you’ve seen, ok? Get some rest!”

“Don’t worry I will” Mike smiled. That smile remained on his face as he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> William is such a bitch, like hes just the worst. And yay! back to actually gameplay!


	12. Revilations

Jeremy got home a little after 3pm, Mike was up by that point, reheating coffee and trying to keep Sunflower out of the coffee bean jar. This was proving to be a very difficult task.

“I'm home!” 

“Hey Jeremy, can you help me with this damned cat?” Mike said, all but holding Sunflower above his head while he yowled and hissed at him.  
Jeremy laughed and easily swooped in to grab the cat, naturally he calmed right down when in Jeremy’s arms, his orange eyes glaring at Mike.

“Goddamn” Mike muttered, taking a sip of his coffee, “How was work?”

“Very boring and I don’t really care about it.” Jeremy said hurriedly, “Tell me about Freddy.”

Mike laughed, following Jeremy out of the kitchen to sit down on the couch, sunflower curled up on Jeremy’s lap, content for the moment.

“Right, so point one that nearly gave me a heart attack. Henry is alive and still working for the company. He just seems to be doing odd jobs at the moment, but he’s defiantly still there.”

“Henry being William’s partner?”

“Yeah, honestly I thought he would be dead by now. Not for animatronic reasons, but he drank a lot after his daughter Charlie’s death.”

“That’s sad.” Jeremy remarked.

“It is. There’s no way that William wasn’t involved with killing Charlie, especially knowing what we know now.”

“Her death ruling was exposure, right?” Jeremy was making notes in a book he had using to keep track of everything they discussed over the months, “But it was only a few hours in the rain, no way a 12-year-old died that quickly. The case file in the government building was incomplete too, it was missing the autopsy.”

“Blunt force trauma…”

“What?” Jeremy looked up confused

“Look when I was listening to Henry’s voice, I remembered him and William’s last interaction, it was a fight. Henry swore up and down that William knew something, but I always pushed it away because he had been on a bender like no other. It made William really panic-y though, I never knew why. But if Henry caught on to something in an autopsy, then that would make William fudge some records in fear of getting caught by someone competent.” Mike stood up; a few ideas were still lining up in his mind. “Now hear me out, and this is all speculation at this point. But something that would be enough to kill, but not as obvious is blunt force trauma, like getting hit with a metal pipe. Children fall down and get bruised all the time, so Charlie is discovered beaten up, holding a puppet, her body is cold and its so wet that it’s hard to tell exactly what happened. Police around here don’t give a shit and everyone knows it, they mark the autopsy all up but rule it as exposure instead of fowl play. Everyone goes home early.”

“Actually…” Jeremy mutters, “That would explain why William started using animatronics, he was sloppy with Charlie, too much was left to chance. He needed a place to dump   
children’s bodies until he could figure out what to do with them.”

“This only raises more questions.” Mike groaned and flopped back down on the couch. “If William is alive, I'm finding him, beating him to death, and getting some answers.”

“In that order?” Mike could hear the smirk in Jeremy’s voice

“Honestly he seems like a bastard that won’t stay dead.”

Jeremy laughed, “that’s fair.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one I'm afraid, it's just hard to make time jumps feel natural in already small chapters :/


	13. Memories will always Catch up with You

The pizzeria looked somehow even more gross than last night, although maybe that was just the contrast between his nice, loving home and this gateway to hell. Mike still wasn’t sure if this was a pizzeria that he had actually visited as a kid or if they all just looked the same. He didn’t think so, but he did recognize the animatronics in there… so maybe.

Taking his seat at the desk, the phone rang like it did last night. It was a recording of Henry again he talked some more about the animatronics and how they move around but then he said “Uh, also, check on the curtain in Pirate Cove from time to time. The character in there seems unique in that he becomes more active if the cameras remain off for long periods of time. I guess he doesn't like being watched. I don't know.”

Pirate cove? Flipping through cameras Mike came across a different stage that had its curtains pulled shut. Weird. What was also strange was how Henry seemed to be slipping more and more into talking about the animatronics as people, using he and she, and not it. Both Henry and William had always been good about that, in his memories. Animatronics are robots and not alive, that was always what the four kids had been told.  
“Weird that he’s switched on that.” Mike muttered to himself, flipping through cameras. Maybe Henry was more unstable than he thought. The cameras show the same things as last night, although Mike did think that Henry was right that the animatronics were more active than last time, but it was a few minutes until 6, so he’d be fine. Then, a flash of color caught his eye.

Looking up from the monitor Mike let out a strangled, chocking sound. There, slumped on the ground, was Fredbear. That golden suit. Mike hadn’t seen it in years, it was ratty and gross, like any suit that had been left in storage for too long. But seeing it made Mike’s blood run cold. There was the suit his little brother had died in.   
The memory hit him like a truck. Carson screaming his head off as Michael dragged him, laughing, towards that Golden Fredbear suit, the sound his skull made as it was crushed, the beeping of the hospital machines, everything. Then a roaring scream pierced his ears, the golden suit was all he could see, and then black.

“It’s me.”

\--------

Mike woke up on the slightly sticky floor of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, an alarm was going off somewhere, he was alive. Pulling himself off the ground, Mike felt hungover, his whole body ached and his head was pounding. There was no Fredbear suit on the floor, and sunlight was streaming though the window. He was safe.

Staggering out of the pizzeria, Mike got to a payphone and dialed the apartment. He wasn’t even sure where he was. Everything was bright and blurry, his breathing was too fast, he felt faint.

“Please pick-up.” He muttered, as the phone rang.

“Yello?” came the familiar voice of his landlord.

“Hey this is Mike Schmitt, roommate of Jeremy Fitzgerald, apartment 111, can you get him on the line please?”

“Hmm? Yeah, I can do that, I’ll page you up to him. You ok son? You don’t sound too good.”

“I’ll be alright sir, just want to speak to Jeremy.” That first part was a lie; Mike was on the verge of completely breaking down. The phone rang a few more times, then he heard Jeremy’s voice.

“Mike are you ok? What’s wrong?” 

He couldn’t help it, and just ended up sobbing into the receiver. Any word he tried to get out was just more gasping sobs.

“Hey hey, its ok Mike. I’m coming to get you, just stay there, I’ll borrow our landlord’s car, and I'm coming. Just stay there and I’ll be there soon.”

*Click*

With the phoneline dead, Mike just slid to the ground and lay there. His sobs slowly quieted into just tears. Mike wasn’t sure how long he lay there face down on the side of the road, but eventually a car pulled up. The front door opened and Jeremy rushed out.

“Mike? Hey darling?” Mike felt himself being grasped by the shoulders and pulled off of the ground. That hurt. He groaned in response.

“Mike are you actively dying? Like, physically?” Jeremy was surprisingly calm for this whole situation of having to peel his decaying boyfriend off the street.

“Not physically.” Mike responded softly, he still felt weird and raw. The crying had stopped, but the screaming in his head had not.

“Let’s go home darling.” Jeremy whispered, “Let’s go home.”


	14. Coming down to earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did this end up being longer than i thought so, now gameplay will be next chapter!

Mike barely registered the car ride, and he barely responded when Jeremy took him by the arm and walked him up the stairs to their apartment. Jeremy was talking in a low, soft voice. But it was hard to focus on. Mike wasn’t even sure what he was focusing on himself, that golden suit? Carson’s voice? The last words he had hear “it’s me”? He couldn’t process any of it, but the events played over and over again in his mind like flashing lights. Suddenly he was in bed.

“How am I…” he couldn’t even finish the thought.

“I carried you to bed honey.” He felt Jeremy’s arms around him as he lay in bed. He let out a strangled sob as he felt a rough, smelly tongue on his face. Sunflower was doing his best to lay on his head and purr, it sounded like a busted engine, but somehow, he felt a little bit better.

“You’re safe now Mike.” Jeremy whispered, “We’re a town over from that place. You never have to go back.”

“I need to go back.” Mike wasn’t sure why this is what he was focusing on, but anything to pull him out of his own mind. “I need to find out what happened in there.”

“What did happen?” Jeremy’s voice was hesitant.

“I saw Carson.” Mike took a deep breath, “Well, I saw the suit he died in. That golden Fredbear suit appeared on the floor, I could feel the spirit of my little brother in it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Mike had never been more certain about anything in his life. “It called to me, and the more I looked at it, the more it screamed. Until I passed out, and the last thing I heard there was ‘it’s me’”.

“It’s me?”

“Yeah, it was like he recognized me, and was calling out to me.” Mike shuddered, “When I woke up, I couldn’t get the image out of my head.”

“What image? The suit?”

“No, the image of his death. The sight of it, the sounds… I just can’t seem to escape it. I think the suit was real, but what if it was just another flashback? It wasn’t there when I woke up.”

“Mike honestly I think you have like PTSD or something, that kinda stuff isn’t normal.” Jeremy said, squeezing his chest as reassurance, Sunflower continued to purr loudly on his head. 

Mike sighed, he was coming down from the panic attack now and was more aware of his surroundings. PTSD wouldn’t be a stretch, but he’d never know because Michael Afton was long dead, and Michael Schmitt didn’t exist on any government records, so going to therapy again was out of the question.

“It’s just kinda funny to me how this is what gets me, I was what 15? And it still haunts me. I don’t even remember my death in such detail.” Mike laughed dryly.

“Sometimes memory is like that.” Jeremy murmured, getting up from the bed. “I’m going to make food ok? Sleep for a while.” And Mike did.

When he woke up it was almost dusk, he felt shaky but full of resolve. He had to go back, at the very least to find Henry, and maybe to find Carson as well, although he wasn’t sure if he even wanted too. He wondered how Jeremy had felt, having no context of the Afton family’s issues, seeing such haunted sights… 

He shuffled out of the room to find Jeremy watching TV with a bowl of cereal, Sunflower in his chair.

“Oh good, you’re awake, how are you feeling?” Jeremy said, looking up at him, “Wait, actually let’s change your bandages now, you’ve had those on for over 24 hours.”

“Hmm? Oh yeah.” Mike had forgotten about how he had an open hole in his chest. It never closed up, but it didn’t seem to be decaying anymore either. Regardless, Jeremy always took the time to change the bandages, and put ointment on the wounds. It was sweet, and it made Mike feel cared for.

He hopped up on the kitchen table, while Jeremy took out his medical supplies, mostly gauze and medical tape, but a few compression-wraps too, just to hold his ribs together. Mike took his shirt off and began picking at the dirty bandages already there.

“See this is why I insist on it every day, this is gross Mike.” Jeremy groaned, looking at the yellowed wraps. 

“I think it’s mostly sweat actually.” Mike replied, wincing as he took off the compression bandage around his ribs, he felt them shift a bit as they no longer had support, revealing the largest hole. He then removed the tape on his upper arms and thighs, places where some of Ennard’s tendrils had broken the skin.

“Still.” Jeremy doused a rag in hydrogen peroxide and began wiping down all of the holes and scars, it didn’t really burn, probably because most of his skin was dead. Mike didn’t like to dwell on how he was still alive, but looking down at his grey-green skin, he had to wonder.

“I wonder what Ennard is up to...” He mused, looking at the hole as Jeremy pushed on some of his looser ribs to get them back into place before applying bandages and a compression-wrap.

“Probably just living in the sewers like a weird rat. They got what they wanted kinda, they’re free.”

“Not as long as Elizabeth is controlling them. She had, or I guess has, a mean streak. She’ll be out looking for something, maybe William even, assuming she think’s she’s alive.” Mike said, trying not to flinch as Jeremy basically reset some of his joints.

“Why would she stay at that point? She doesn’t have a body that she wants, almost might as well get her old Circus Baby shell back and try to find your father, assuming that’s what she’s up too.” Jeremy asked, finishing up the gauze on Mike’s thighs.

“I don’t know, I just hope I find her before she finds me.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, after seeing Carson. I want to set the souls free, I don’t know how, but I’m still alive for some reason. And I’ve got to do something with that.” Mike felt some sort of conviction in what was left of his heart.

Jeremy nodded as he packed up the medical supplies and handed Mike his shirt and pants back.

“Whatever you need to do Mike, I'm with you every step of the way. Because I love you.” Jeremy smiled up at him as he said it, and Mike once again felt that flash of warmth in his chest.

“I love you too. Now I need to mentally prepare for work again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading y'all. I'll be updating fairly frequently, as I actually know how this one ends!  
> Obviously fnaf is confusing (which is why we love it I guess) so if you don't get something feel free to call me out in the comments lol. :)  
> I'll admit I haven't played Help Wanted or read the books, so stuff from that probably won't ever be incorporated, just fyi  
> (also please comment/kudo it makes my day :D)


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